I'm extracting the conclusions of the very interesting article by Len McCarthy, "Slow Down: How The Beatles Changed The Rhythmic Paradigm of Pop & Rock" in Yrjö Heinonen et alii (eds.), Beatlestudies 2. Proceedings of the Beatles 2000 Conference, Jyväskylä, University, 2001, pp. 215-230. By 1967, the changes Ringo Starr made in his drums playing (=basically, moving from the traditional snare on the 'two' and 'four' to the new 'three'), became imitated in the years to come by other influential drummers. This lead to a change in compositional procedures and a new 'feel', taking slow tempos and sixteenth note grid, instead of the traditional eighth.

IMHO, this is one of the reasons why McCartney's bass playing becomes more 'melodic' from then on (=together with the use of the Rickenbacker instead of the Höfner). So, I guess this change of rhythmic procedure could be another McCartney's idea...

I'm extracting the conclusions of the very interesting article by Len McCarthy, "Slow Down: How The Beatles Changed The Rhythmic Paradigm of Pop & Rock" in Yrjö Heinonen et alii (eds.), Beatlestudies 2. Proceedings of the Beatles 2000 Conference, Jyväskylä, University, 2001, pp. 215-230. By 1967, the changes Ringo Starr made in his drums playing (=basically, moving from the traditional snare on the 'two' and 'four' to the new 'three'), became imitated in the years to come by other influential drummers. This lead to a change in compositional procedures and a new 'feel', taking slow tempos and sixteenth note grid, instead of the traditional eighth.

IMHO, this is one of the reasons why McCartney's bass playing becomes more 'melodic' from then on (=together with the use of the Rickenbacker instead of the Höfner). So, I guess this change of rhythmic procedure could be another McCartney's idea...

I hope you enjoy the reading...

Xosé

Xose,Very interesting, especially in view of (the late) Al Kooper's assertion that 'Sgt. Pepper' was the album that changed rock drumming (in fact, I think that that is a direct quote, but I'm not going to search that quote out at the moment).

Kooper said that he felt that Ringo introduced the concept of "space fills" on the album, and that for him - Kooper - it revolutionised rock drumming, and caused him to have to figure out how he was going to have his fellow musicians approach drumming from then on when he was wearing his producer's hat.